>> i mother's day, suzanne and bobby went to visit peggy' grave. >> hey, mama >> finally, it was all over. get >> you kind of look at lif a little bit differently life is very valuable. >> it puts things in perspective. >> you've done anything specia for yourself >> i treated myself to a car she's a fancy german lady that likes to go fast my mother always said, spend a little, enjoy your money you'll have mine someday who knew that someday was goin to be so soon. that's all for this edition of dateline, i'm craig melvin thank you for watching

temporary field headquarters >> so many young women missing one woman determined to find them >> there's a story to her too. a young woman lucky to b alive. for a lot of people that would be the end to police work. >> so she searched the numbers grew the families hurt. >> she says i have some ba news for you under a desert sky a secret waited. >> this is not happening >> missing women forgotten by almost everyone but her. >> i have always felt they wer going to be together if you find one you'll fin them, all. >> sometimes ida lopez simpl can't wait for sunday.

sometimes in the middle of her work week the albuquerqu detective feels a pressing nee for spiritual solace and divin guidance the fall of 2005 was one o those times. it was a time when a siniste force seemed to be snatching women off the streets of new mexico's largest city. and the devoutly religious detective knew she needed al the help she could get >> i think it's somebody who's very organized i think he's been preying on his victims, has a particula victim in mind >> sticking up for victims comes naturally to ida lopez it's the same instinct tha drew her to police work year ago, when she was a kid, growing up in albuquerque. >> i was about 9 years old actually, it was my grandfathe raised me. he was outside

he was about in his 80s. and i'm in the porch area. and there's a foot chase and the guy goes toward him, and he's tackled by police i just thought that was th coolest thing i'd ever seen. and so that curiosity. and then there was the service part, the helping people par of police work >> after college ida graduated from the police academy an joined the force as a uniforme officer. >> most of my areas that i worked, especially patrol, i was assigned working the prostitutes in the area. >> and so she learned about th lives of the women on th street and it was here while posing a a decoy during prostitutio sting operations that sh learned the raw power of their addictions >> i just learned the absolute dependence on the drug for the girls because there's no way i your right mind you're going t

get into a car and do what thi person just told you to do there's no way and so that gave me an empathy for them on that part, and i thought, wow, this has got t be powerful. >> over the years ida's career blossomed. she made detective, marrie another cop, and started a family her future seemed assured. but in 2004 while pregnant wit her second child doctors discovered a mass in ida's right kidney >> it was growing, and i had kidney cancer. >> what did doctors tell you >> well, they were shocked they said it wasn't common i women and it wasn't common i women my age he wouldn't say what the plans were because the only, you know, close person i knew had cancer and died

and i thought, well, i need to make further plans you know, my husband's got young kids to take care of >> frightening >> then about a month and half after i was diagnosed then i had my kidney removed >> surgeons also removed ida's adrenal gland because it too had a mass on it but because doctors caught the cancer early, ida required neither chemo nor radiatio therapy. ida's return to work would hav to be gradual, if it was going to happen at all >> for a lot of people tha would be the end of police work >> right >> not for you >> no. i wasn't done. >> and so in july 2005, after few months of recuperation as reserve officer, the departmen offered ida a 20-hour-a-week desk job working missing persons. >> missing persons is kind of backwater in a lot o departments. i mean, that's not exactly, yo know, the premier detectiv job. >> right right. it's where they needed somebody, and it worked out, you know, for me

and for them missing persons, you know, was busy the position was there and it was i thought perfect timing >> as you will soon see, timing, both perfect and not so perfect, will play a critical part in the story we're about to sho you. within weeks of starting her new job, ida was handed tw missing persons files. those two files would mark the beginning of the biggest cas in her career and would turn into one of new mexico's mos heinous crime stories. but at the time it was routine low priority policework. >> how many other detectives i missing persons? >> i was the only detective in

there at the time. >> both of those missing persons were attractive wome in their 20s, with arres records for drugs an prostitution both had seemingly vanishe without a word to friends or relatives. sad but common, especially for these dark streets where dru addiction and prostitution literally go hand in hand. ida went by the book >> so what i usually do is i g back to see what their arres history is their lifestyle has been wit drugs. so it's a matter of time befor they go back out so i keep them, do my full background on them then a third one comes in. >> a third one >> a third one and then as the months go by we search more and find that

there are, you know, maybe another one here, then another one there, and that sort o thing. >> soon there were five missin women with eerily simila profiles on ida's list all of them about the same age with a similar look. all were known to hang out in section of albuquerque s notorious that cops call it th war zone and all but one, a juvenile, had lengthy arrest records for drugs or prostitution. so she did what every good detective does she started keeping a list o missing women who match that profile. that was the easy part the hard part was that many of them had already been missin for more than a year before id even had a chance to start looking. it's one of those timing issue we told you about earlier. lengthy delays in reportin missing people as missing. >> it's like being in a race and somebody has a year ahea start. ready, set, go and i don't have phone records i don't have a normal, you know, regular address. you don't have a schoo schedule or work schedule, tha sort of thing. >> and you don't have anybod who saw them yesterday >> right >> and can tell you what the were doing, what their state o mind was, who they were hangin around with. >> right and the family knows the better than i do but they hadn't seen them. or they see them once a mont or every six months. >> add to that fact that mos of the missing women had supported their drug habit a street prostitutes who got int cars with strange men as often as 20 to 30 times a day. and it's easy to see how another detective, one with harder heart than the on beating inside ida lopez, migh have given up. >> a missing daughter and father's regret. >> i dropped her off at friends. i didn't do the right thing bu i knew i had to.

♪ icy hot pro starts working instantly. with two max-strength pain relievers. ♪ so you can rise from pain like a pro. icy hot pro. hey hon. hey dad...(sniffs) that smell could be 8,000,000 odor causing bacteria. good thing adding lysol laundry sanitizer kills 99.9% of bacteria that detergents leave behind. clean is good, sanitized is better. ♪ ♪ with a majority of my patience with sensitivity, i see irritated gums and weak enamel. sensodyne sensitivity gum & enamel relieves sensitivity, helps restore gum health, and rehardens enamel. i'm a big advocate of recommending things that i know work.

aany questions?dy i'-yeah, i got one.of how about the best network imaginable? let's invent that. that's what we do here. quick survey. who wants the internet to work, pretty much everywhere. and it needs to smooth, like super, super, super, super smooth. hey, should you be drinking that? -it's decaf. because we're busy women. we don't have time for lag or buffering. who doesn't want internet that helps a.i. do your homework even faster. come again. -sorry, what was that? introducing the next generation 10g network only from xfinity. the future starts now. it's official, america. xfinity mobile is the fastest mobile service. and gives you unmatched savings with the best price for two lines of unlimited. only $30 a line per month. the fastest mobile service and major savings? can't argue with the facts. no wonder xfinity mobile is one of the fastest growing mobile services, now with over 5 million customers and counting. save hundreds a year over t-mobile, at&t and verizon. talk to our switch squad at your local xfinity store today. every life is a mystery.

not just because of what happens but because of wha might have been prevented, missed, or altogether avoided. >> in the whole wide world >> such was the mystery of the women on detective ida lopez's growing list of the lost it's a mystery their familie still struggle to understand >> there's a dad who had a calendar every time he saw her he marke the date down. gave her 20 bucks. maybe he knew where the mone was going to go. but he saw his daughter. and that didn't take that part away, that she was still somebody's little girl >> i think they're trick candles. >> the name, the face, belonge to michelle valdez, one of the first women on ida's list.

dan valdez, her father, ha reported michelle missing si months before ida got the case he was the guy who kept th calendar >> the xs indicating no -- n knowledge of her, disappeared, nothing. no word. >> the fact is dan valdez ha been recording his daughter' comings and goings for years >> this is michelle. >> hi. >> i took it upon myself t tape them, tape every event. every chance that i had i ha the videotape there. >> the michelle valdez tha appears in these home videos with her little sisters is a far cry from the thin, drug-wasted young woman police would later come to know and fingerprint. >> daddy, can i have something to eat now >> this michelle, along with her sister camille and hal

sister kendra, was a cut-up an a clown. >> whether in costume for school play, dressed up for he first communion, or showing budding interest in boys >> oh, yeah. davy >> this michelle according t her sister camille was a all-american girl with a futur as bright as the new mexic sun. >> i looked up to her for many things you know, i was always the tag-along with her and her friends. >> and she didn't mind >> no. not at all not at all >> then came the teen years. when life started coming a michelle valdez fast and furious. by then dan and michelle's mother were divorced, and da was raising michelle and camille alone while workin days at the juvenile detention center

and nights and weekends playin steel guitar with his countr band, cimarron dan tried to keep a watchful eye on his girls and even took them to work with him at the juvenile detention center to show them where careless mistakes can lead. some of it seemed to take. some of it didn't. at 13 michelle became pregnant >> i was devastated. but what can you do? you can't be with them 24/7. all you can do is bring them up, nurture them, show them love attention, appreciation. >> and sometimes they make a mistake. >> and sometimes they make the wrong turn or a mistake. >> shortly after her 14t birthday michelle valdez gav birth to a baby girl she named angelica >> so you were being a fathe all over again >> father all over again

>> i was only 8 years old and? becoming an aunt, you know it was tough but once -- once, you know, we had that bond, me and angelica it was nice. i enjoyed it >> at 14 most kids rightfull think their best years are ahead of them. high school, college career that was not the track michell valdez was on. though dan continued to tape all the usual family functions michelle's little girl angelic was now the center o attention. but on the periphery in offhan moments dan's camera als caught something else. the look and the unspoke despair that signaled the deat of a young girl's dreams she struggled to hold it all together but michelle eventually droppe out of school. for a while she tried to support herself and angelica with a series of minimum wag jobs but couldn't make end

meet after three years angelica was sent to live with dan's mother who lived nearby, and michelle took to living with a series o people she called friends. by 2002 the wear and tear is written all over her face. happy birthday that septembe angelica celebrated her sixt birthday michelle had just turned 20. a milestone that was not los on mother or child >> mommy's not a grownup anymore -- i mean, a teenage anymore. >> no. in a sense michelle never was teenager and now on the cusp of young adulthood michelle looke gaunt. her face bore the kind of sore that suggested she'd bee hitting the crack pipe >> when did you notice thing were going wrong i'm guessing you noticed befor anybody else >> yeah. i noticed when she started seeing one of her boyfriends you know he opened up the door for al the wrong things >> like?

>> the drugs the drugs. definitely >> dan knew about the drugs an twice got her to agree to ente rehab. but michelle never showed up increasingly there were run-in with the law michelle had already bee busted for receiving and transported stolen property, drug possession and car theft. dan knew about some of the arrests. most he didn't when a stolen car rap in arizona landed michelle in jail, dan says he bailed her out and pleaded with her to change her ways >> on the way back from arizon to here she promised, i'm no going to hang out with the sam people, i'm going to do things different and you're going t be proud of me again, and then she bails two hours after she' home >> the toll of michelle' addiction on her younger siste camille is also evident in dan's videos as camille becomes a teenager, she no longer seems to want to acknowledge michelle or even have her around. >> we were always bumpin heads.

we weren't as close. because of the drugs she'd come over and steal my things or, you know, i would see how upset it would make my dad. so i would tell her, you know, mean things. >> before long michelle valdez stopped showing up in he father's videos. sometimes because she avoide the camera other times because she simply didn't show up >> she knew that there was events at the house becaus she'd call and ask if she coul borrow $25, she was hungry o whatever she was at -- you know, at a hurting spot so i gave her the money. >> even though you knew -- > even though i knew that it could be going for drugs it was my gateway to makin contact with her and seeing he in person. >> dan may have had th patience of job. but by 2004 camille, the tag-along little sister, had had enough when michelle asked dan if she

could move back home for a while, camille put her foo down >> he was going to let her sta with us. and i remember telling him no. if she comes and stays, i' going to leave i couldn't handle it >> i remember that >> i didn't even -- i didn't even want to be around i anymore. i was so tired of it tired of seeing him hurt >> so you told michelle sh couldn't come over >> i told michelle she couldn' come over. i took her to a friend's house and dropped her off there. i know in my heart i didn't do the right thing, but i kne that the common sense of m brain said that i had to i had to take that avenue. i had to take that avenue. >> but for dan valdez it was pure they call it tough love

torture. every night he knew she was ou there. and every time the phone ran his heart stopped. hoping that hers had not "dateline" returns after the break. daily for non-drowsy, long lasting relief in a scent-free, gentle mist. (psst psst) flonase. all good. is a new title really necessary? sir, after bestowing the gift of renting ease to millions, a bump is in order. okay, let's see. oh, hey... what's this? lord of the lease! i'm not a hat-person. yeah, no. emperor of the rentalverse. that's funny. no. rentaur the trusted. ...i don't like it. oh. ok. master of the rentalsphere. wow! oh, is it too much? apartments.com the place to find a place. nexgard is the flea and tick protection that's #1 with vets. your vet trusts it for her patients... ...and her own dog. plus, its delicious beef flavor is #1 with dogs. use with caution in dogs with a history of seizures or neurologic disorders. ask your vet about nexgard.

♪♪ alex!

mateo, hey how's business? great. you know that loan has really worked wonders. that's what u.s. bank is for. and you're growing in california? -yup, socal, norcal... -monterey? -all day. -a branch in ventura? that's for sure-ah. atms in fresno? fres-yes. encinitas? yes, indeed-us. anaheim? big time. more guacamole? i'm on a roll-ay. how about you? i'm just visiting. by the fall of 2004 da u.s. bank. ranked #1 in customer satisfaction with retail banking in california by j.d. power.

valdez's calendar was beginnin to fill with xs. each x marking another day without word from his oldest daughter, michelle >> when was the last time yo saw her? >> it was in september of 2004 >> how'd she look? >> thin, wired out, strung out maybe. had spots on her face. and looked bad >> did you see her then? >> honestly, i don't remembe the last time i seen her

i don't remember the last word we spoke >> you don't remember the last thing you said to her? >> no. >> but it might not have been nice thing >> no. >> but as erratic as michell had become in recent years she'd somehow always managed t show up. for the moments that mattere most to her daughter, angelica that changed when michelle failed to show up fo angelica's seventh birthda party. that day it fell to 15-year-ol camille to fill in for michell and act as mom that christmas angelica opened her presents alone, with n sign of her mother michelle. >> i thought maybe she'd tur up a few days later, a few weeks, or we'd -- you know she'd call us. >> it was breaking angelica' heart that day when she wasn't there. >> in february, five month after michelle was last seen dan went down to the albuquerque police station and formally reported his daughter missing. detective ida lopez, who would later make it her mission to find michelle and the othe missing women, was on medica leave at the time. so in ida's absence the valdez

family was at the mercy of the police department' bureaucracy. >> what'd the police tell you? >> she didn't want to be found >> and i can understand it a.p. doesn't just deal with missing they deal with all kinds >> for a long time the new would be full of stories about girls who were missing and everybody's looking for them and one of the things that those girls all had in commo was that they were all attractive and blond and white and didn't have any criminal record and i guess i just kind of wonder whether police an everybody else would have star of stepped up their game a little bit if that had been th case here. >> yeah, that did cross my min numerous times but you know, you have to have faith in your law enforcement. if you don't have faith in you law enforcement to treat everybody equal, then what d you have >> what you have in da valdez's case is a search yo do yourself. as spring turned to summer tha year, dan, his ex-wife, and hi daughters plastered flyers wit

michelle's picture all ove central avenue asking anyone who'd seen her to call the albuquerque police department. at night dan drove through the war zone sometimes into the wee hours o the morning. looking for michelle >> it was real hard because yo know, i'd be circling the bloc or whatever, see somebody that may appear to be the size of michelle, a small person, an go around the block two or three times and me wondering who they were as well as the wondering who i was. >> it had to be brutally difficult to think of michelle living that kind of life >> definitely. definitely it was not the way that he mother and i raised her. >> those were long nights, filled with bitterswee memories of michelle the way she used to be, before the drugs took over. and thoughts of rare moments together before she went missing. >> she came over to the hous one day, and i'd given her a few dollars, and she stood up.

she said, well, dad, i'm going to run i said all right and she said -- she went up to put her arms around me, and hugged her and she said no, dad squeeze me tight squeeze me like you've never squeezed me before and i got her and i gave her the biggest hug a father could ever give his daughter >> remembered moments like tha sustained dan and drove him to continue his lonely search for michelle then in july 2005, about fiv months after dan had first reported michelle missing, h got a call from a detective wh had only recently been assigne michelle's case. a detective named ida lopez. >> i thought ida being a polic officer was awfully small. short lady but other than that it seeme that, you know, that she was o the up and up and that she was doing -- doing what she could, in her power, and the time tha she had to go out and -- out t the streets.

>> it would become a close working relationship based o frequent phone calls and mutua admiration >> dan is a strong, quiet man. this is a man who absolutely loved his daughter no matter what he didn't see her with the track marks. he didn't see her strung out >> and he had no idea she' been arrested that many times. >> well, he did see her that way. but that's not the -- that's not what he saw in his eyes, o his heart. >> dan continued to cruise the war zone, willing himself to believe that his daughter wa still out there. >> i thought she was alive and well and doing good but just didn't want to have any contac with the family. maybe i did something wrong. maybe it was me not letting he come back to the house maybe it was camille saying no or whatever. >> but dan's confidence that michelle would turn up alive was suddenly shaken one nigh when the phone rang at the valdez home. the caller on the other end of the line had heard something shocking >> we had gotten a call from a family friend of ours that i grew up with, and you know, pick up the phone and she' like, oh, my gosh, i'm sorry

about your sister. and i said, you know, what are you talking about? she said, michelle michelle's -- michelle and cinnamon were stabbed an buried on the west mesa. >> did you know who cinnamon was? >> no. no never heard of her before. >> did you ask her where she heard that >> yeah. her aunt ran the streets, knew michelle, knew certain people, and they had heard it from her aunt >> dan immediately calle detective ida lopez with the tip. but she was unable to find the aunt or to pin down the source of the rumor it was all just unverifiable street talk, the kind ida lope had heard before except for one tantalizing tidbit cinnamon was a name on ida's list

cinnamon elks, missing since august of 2004 but even if those rumors wer true and human remains wer cooling in the desert night on albuquerque's west mesa, the detective knew, it would take miracle to find them was a serial killer stalking the women working the war zone >> i just always felt that the were going to be together. >> in death as in life >> if you find one, you're going to find them all when "dateline" continues. every morning the sunrises ove the sandia mountains east of albuquerque and begins bakin one of the most celebrated stretches of asphalt in th united states -- historic rout 66, the highway famous for carrying dust bowl refugees an beat generation oddballs wes to california. the mother road's glory days are behind her now in albuquerque, where the ol highway becomes central avenue the city's decidedly down-scaled drug and prostitution trade flourishes.

>> cops call this section of central avenue the war zone. and the women who work its shadows prostitutes. but ever since her early day in uniformed patrol, ida lopez has called them her girls. >> i got to know a lot of them you know, we could chase the out, but for me there wa always a ridiculously better i told myself i was ok with my moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis symptoms. with my psoriatic arthritis symptoms. but just ok isn't ok. and i was done settling. if you still have symptoms after a tnf blocker like humira or enbrel, rinvoq is different and may help.

rinvoq is a once-daily pill that can dramatically relieve ra and psa symptoms, including fatigue for some. p joint damage. rinvoq is a once-daily pill that can and in psa,y relieve can leave skin clear or almost clear. rinvoq can lower your ability to fight infections, including tb. serious infections and blood clots, some fatal; cancers, including lymphoma and skin cancer; death, heart attack, stroke, and tears in the stomach or intestines occurred. people 50 and older with at least one heart disease risk factor have higher risks. don't take if allergic to rinvoq as serious reactions can occur. tell your doctor if you are or may become pregnant. done settling? ask your rheumatologist for rinvoq. and take back what's yours. learn how abbvie could help you save. ♪oh♪ ♪then you take me by the hand♪ ♪i feel better again♪ ♪oh i feel better now♪ this comes as biden is widel

expected to announce his reelection bid as early as tuesday. and jeff shell, the ceo of our parent company, and you se universal, and on sunday h will be living leaving his position immediately, comcas says this follows an investigation by outside counsel into a complaint o inappropriate conduct. now, back to dateline. every morning the sunrises ove the sandia mountains east of albuquerque and begins bakin one of the most celebrated stretches of asphalt in th united states -- historic rout 66, the highway famous for

carrying dust bowl refugees an beat generation oddballs wes to california. the mother road's glory days are behind her now in albuquerque, where the ol highway becomes central avenue the city's decidedly down-scaled drug and prostitution trade flourishes. >> cops call this section of central avenue the war zone. and the women who work its shadows prostitutes. but ever since her early day in uniformed patrol, ida lopez has called them her girls. >> i got to know a lot of them you know, we could chase the out, but for me there wa always a story to them >> ida says the stories sh heard back then were heartbreaking tales of abuse and neglect that almost always had drugs at their core. >> these are hurting women i mean, you'll see some ou here that they need that fix you know, it's not what you se in vegas it's not the call girl it's not the pretty woman. >> by the end of 2005 ida ha five women on her list who wer roughly the same age wit similar backgrounds. young hispanic women wit arrest records for drugs o prostitution >> i start going out there and talking to the girls at first some of them were hesitant and i said, look, i'm no running you.

i just want to know when was the last time you saw her? did you know her what can you tell me what's going on out here >> how much of your time i this taking? >> it's taking all my time >> working alone, the detectiv distributed flyers with th women's pictures at truck stops, convenience stores, even the new mexico state fair. but she kept coming up empty >> i went to some drug rehab places who were not willing to help me. i sat in many waiting rooms, and i said, i don't want t know what their sessions wer about. all i want to know is timeline >> some of the women had bee missing for so long that ida started comparing notes with a detective in the department' cold case unit eventually, ida and the cold case detective were able t persuade the department to let them form an unofficial task force, where once a month they met with other agencies,

including the fbi. to discuss leads on missin persons, on cold cases, on sexual predators, and on unidentified remains >> so we were able t communicate with each othe anything that came up. any trucker initiatives or murderers that the fbi sent us we posted on the wall. our girls we posted on the wall >> are truckers a particular problem? >> yeah. they can be. they travel interstate they pick up a lot of girls. and we know a few that have history of murdering the girls who frequent the truck stops >> so at one point at leas you're sort of looking a truckers >> looking at everybody. >> by the end of that year ida's list had grown to more than a dozen women ida knew the odds of finding any of the missing women alive

were not good. but that's not what she told the families when they calle in, looking to hear somethin encouraging. >> i would tell them every single day we're one day close to finding your daughter yes, i pray that they're okay. hopefully they've been in commune in some mountainou town or in a rehab center or a jail or with friends tha they're actually doing okay. >> did you believe any of that >> i held on to the hope and possibility. >> reality, however, demande that the detective do more tha just hope for a happy ending so with the tact of a parish priest ida lopez began makin the rounds >> michelle. >> asking family members suc as dan valdez for dental records and dna swabs. >> when you go to some famil that's got a missing daughte or sister and say, i need some familial dna and i need your child's dental records, you're essentially saying to that family i do not expect to find

her alive. >> right and i also think that they kne the lifestyle which puts the in harm's way. so nobody denied the dangers that their daughters were in >> out in the war zone were th human urge towar self-destruction is strongest, death is just anothe occupational hazard. >> i asked how many cars a day would you get into up to 20, 30 cars a day. you know, how many guys is that? but they know. they know the dangers ou there. >> rumors that albuquerque might have its own jack th ripper who was snatching

prostitutes off the streets wa still common currency among th women working the war zone >> there was a handful of urba legends, it was cuban drug dealers, it was a cop from california, i mean, a number o things they heard some of the girls had been chopped up in piece and dumped in another county south of here. >> chilling, if true but but in the light-spangle darkness of albuquerque's wa zone, where women sell themselves for as little as $2 a trick, truth and rumor are interchangeable commodities. still, in her quieter moments, ida allowed herself to fear th worst. >> i've just always felt tha they were going to be together >> in death as in life >> yeah. >> yeah. i just -- you know, there wa nothing that led me factual to

(smelling) ew. gotta get rid of this. ♪tell me why♪ because it stinks. believe that i just always felt that if you find one you're going to fin them all them all >> unfortunately, ida's theory would soon be put to the test. good thing adding lysol laundry sanitizer kills 99.9% of bacteria that detergents leave behind. clean is good, sanitized is better. >> one of our violent crimes detectives said oh, they found a bone when "dateline" continues.

>> for four years. >> hello >> detective ida lopez tende her list of missing women as i it were a garden plot. >> did you notice when the girls were going missing >> mostly she just watched i grow but occasionally she was abl to do some pruning whenever a lost soul was found >> i find a girl with the same background but guess what i find her months later. and i get to call the dad an say, we found her. she's been arrested. >> kind of weird to be able to you know, call a family and sa great news -- >> oh, yeah. >> -- your daughter's prostitute and she's alive. >> right but i get to say this is where she's at >> the families of the 18 wome now on ida's list prayed for happy endings like that one. but most of the women wh worked albuquerque's war zone, fellow travelers who might hav

helped ida find the missing, were too drug addled to provid useful leads some passed on grisly rumors t ida, that the missing wome were dead and had been dumpe in the desert west of town >> it's like a little dark evi city out here. >> desiree gonzalez says she used to hang out on thes streets and says she kne several of the missing women and had also heard those sam rumors >> i came out here looking for my cousin, and i bumped into cinnamon, and she had told m that -- that the girls wer

getting their heads cut off an tooken to the mesa and that was the last time i seen cinnamon. i got scared you know, it seems like they knew or something. >> ida didn't completely disbelieve what her girls were telling her. but the mesa, a vast expanse o desert west of town wher people frequently dump thing they no longer have any use for, was simply too big an area t launch a search based on just rumor. and so this case was going

nowhere. until late in the afternoon on february 2nd, 2009 >> sit >> when christine ross decided to take her dog ruca for a walk >> okay. >> they strolled out of her ne subdivision, one of many tha had recently sprouted up in th desert west of albuquerque, an then over to an abando construction site, where christine let ruca off the leash to run >> she ran up ahead of me, and she was messing with something on the ground. and then she left it we came upon it, and i appeared to be a bone. didn't look like the norma animal bone you find out here. so i took a picture of the bone i sent it to my sister, who's nurse. she confirmed that that looked like a femur bone and i should call the authorities >> finding a bone, even a huma bone, is not unusual out her on albuquerque's west mesa this is storied territory, where native american tribes

conquistadors, and cowboys onc roamed the bone could easily have belonged to one of them. but the police who arrived a the scene shortly afte nightfall soon the old parenta -- parental feeling is hopin that it wasn't investigators find more bone over 30 yards of the abandoned kru construction site. one mystery ending another just beginning my asthma felt anything but normal. ♪ ♪ it was time for a nunormal with nucala. nucala is a once-monthly add-on treatment for severe eosinophilic asthma that can mean less oral steroids. not for sudden breathing problems. allergic reactions can occur. get help right away for swelling of face, mouth, tongue, or trouble breathing. infections that can cause shingles have occurred. don't stop steroids unless told by your doctor. tell your doctor if you have a parasitic infection. may cause headache, injection site reactions, back pain, and fatigue. ask your asthma specialist about a nunormal with nucala. victor... why are you still living with odors? get back in there and freshen instantly with new febreze air mist.

that's right! febreze now has a new, finer mist that floats in the air longer and quickly fills the room to fight even your toughest odors. leftover fried fish funk? instant freshness! gaming teen odors? instant freshness! spray new febreze air mist to keep your home smelling fresh and clean. ♪ la, la, la, la, la. ♪ (rebecca) i would try and encourage anyone to quit smoking. i can't tell you what to do. but what i can tell you, is that this can happen to you. (announcer) you can quit. call 1-800-quit-now for help getting free medication. is a new title really necessary? sir, after bestowing the gift of renting ease to millions, a bump is in order. okay, let's see. oh, hey... what's this? lord of the lease! i'm not a hat-person. yeah, no. emperor of the rentalverse. that's funny. no. rentaur the trusted. ...i don't like it. oh. ok. master of the rentalsphere.

wow! oh, is it too much? apartments.com the place to find a place. ♪ ♪ [ cat purrs ] [ phone vibrates ] introducing astepro allergy. steroid-free allergy relief that starts working in 30 minutes, while other allergy sprays take hours. now with astepro fast allergy relief, [ spray, spray ] you can astepro and go. [gum stretches] dang it. [tires pop] dang it. that's some bad luck brian. and i think i'm late on my car insurance. good thing the general gives you a break when you need it. yeah, with flexible payment options to keep you covered. so today is your lucky... oh! [crash] ...day. meteor! [screams] dangit. for a great low rate, go with the general. sunrise would bring news of hi

daughter michelle. >> police have set up a ti line >> then in february 2009 cam unsettling news. a thigh bone had been found ou on albuquerque's west mesa within days evidence of on body had become evidence o

two. and then three then four. then five. then six >> all six sets of remains wer found within 20 yards of eac other. >> dan valdez, who'd bee wondering for years where hi daughter was, saw his most cherished hopes and his most dreaded fears placed on collision course >> when they found the second,

third, and fourth sets i sai to myself i have t realistically look at this that michelle i'm sure probabl is out there >> at times detective ida lope was out there too. along with practically every other member of the albuquerqu police department and forensic experts from the fbi digging, scraping, sifting >> the reality, it was kind of like this is not happening you know, it's stuff you rea about. >> then came seven eight. nine ten. 11 it turned out all were women and all with the same name jane doe and ida lopez couldn't help bu wonder if these dry bones were the women she'd been looking for. >> you know, i just didn't know it was so much going through m mind >> over the years ida's list o the lost had grown to includ close to two dozen women who fit the same basic profile - young drug-addicted hispanic women who were known to wander the gritty streets o albuquerque's war zone for ida walking through this bone yard felt as if she wer watching a horror movie unfold in real time

>> you're finding this, an you're just going, i wonder if it's going to be the rest of the girls. and i carried this little flye in my pocket and in my car, yo know, for the last, you know four years >> and within weeks ida's earl work of collecting denta records of the missing women and dna samples from their families began to pay off. bones started to get names >> the only body that has been identified so far, victori chavez >> she was on your list. >> she was on my list. >> and you thought, this is it >> i thought this could be it, yeah >> but there was more. something that surprised eve veteran crime scen investigators. in the grave of jane doe numbe 8 investigators found a tiny second set of bones. it was a fetus jane doe number 8 had been fou months pregnant at the time of her death. >> they would say we found a skull that had a lot of hair and she's pregnant i said it's michelle valdez. but they hadn't made an i.d. yet. >> michelle valdez after years of having only her rap sheet and her father's bittersweet memories to go on, ida lopez was now sure she kne where michelle valdez was. >> did you know michelle was

pregnant when she disappeared? >> i did >> a few days later lab work confirmed ida's hunch. jane doe number 8 was michelle valdez >> and i had to tell dan the hardest part of this whole thing is having to go to somebody's house and say w found her and she's not alive. >> i see her pull up out front and i go out and stand on th sidewalk she gets out of her car an comes up to me and ida says, "dan." she says, "i have some bad new for you. >> dan, she was i.d.'d, and it was her, and they found, you know, she was pregnant and the baby it was -- it was just very difficult. >> i -- i looked at her in disbelief. but knew it was reality. i just could feel all th strength in my body just kin

of just drain all of a sudden. and i kind of was wobbling a little bit, and ida consoled m a little bit and said it's okay, you know, it's okay. and then she says is there anything that we can do? do you need anything i said no. i said just the information yo gave me was plenty >> of course there was more da needed to do that evening. he would have to tel michelle's 12-year-old daughter, angelica >> and i said, "angelica." i said, "detective lopez jus told us that your mother has been positively i.d.'d as on of the west mesa women victims -- one of the west mesa women. and that's when angelica looke at me and started crying she said, "no, don't tell me that you're lying to me don't lie to me. it's -- i said, honey, i'm not i'm telling you the truth. >> it was a scene that no doub had played out earlier at th family home of victoria chavez

but for the families of th other women on ida's list, the waiting and wondering would go on for months. for ida lopez there was th fear that her nightmar prediction was coming true >> i just always felt that i you find one you're going to find them all. >> and for albuquerque's homicide detectives there wa the most pressing question o all. who was responsible for turnin the west mesa into an unmarked cemetery and was he still at work searching for clues in a crime scene big enough to be see from space >> it's kind of eerie lookin at those satellite photos. >> that really sends a chill u and down your spine. when "dateline" continues.

(nathan m) secondhand smoke caused me to have asthma attacks, infections, and lung damage. and i never smoked. (announcer) you can quit. call 1-800-quit-now for help getting free medication. ♪ crunchy ♪ ♪ tasty ♪ ♪ sweet or savory ♪ ♪ always satisfying ♪ ♪ gimme blue diamond! ♪ ♪ crunchy, tasty, sweet or savory ♪ ♪ always satisfying ♪ ♪ gimme blue diamond! ♪ ♪ crunchy, tasty. sweet or savory, ♪ ♪ always satisfying, gimme- ♪ blue diamond almonds. ♪ ♪ [ cat purrs ] ♪ alwa[ phone vibrates ]me- ♪ introducing astepro allergy. steroid-free allergy relief that starts working in 30 minutes, while other allergy sprays take hours. now with astepro fast allergy relief, [ spray, spray ] you can astepro and go. every fall as the southwestern

summer heat begins to ease hot air balloons rise like sprin flowers over albuquerque and the surrounding desert it's the city's annual balloon fiesta a money-making spectacle tha draws tourists from all over the world to albuquerque for one week in october. it's unlikely that any of th balloonists who float out over the west mesa area spend muc time studying the details of the sandy desert floor below but if one of them had durin the 2003 or 2004 festivals they might have actually see evidence of a murderer moonlighting as a grave digger it turns out that even thoug that evidence was long gone by the time those bones wer discovered in 2009 a bird's ey view was precisely the perspective investigator needed to start their search for killer >> when you see those satellit

photos and you see the scarrin on the desert floor, knowing what we know now, it's ver obvious that those look like graves >> this is what albuquerqu police chief ray schultz say investigators saw when the looked at old pictures of th mesa in this 2002 image of the area where the bones were discovere there's nothing unusual. just desert and sage brush wit a dry stream bed running through it but two years later, in 2004 when most of the women o detective ida lopez's list wer disappearing, the images sho tire tracks leading from thi road to a few bare spots in th vegetation spots that weren't there before this photo, taken the followin year, shows even more bare spots. clustered within 20 yards of each other >> it's kind of eerie lookin at those satellite photos.

>> that really sends a chill u and down your spine. >> the conclusion wa inescapable. albuquerque police were lookin at the evolving work of serial killer. >> this particular individua made sure that he went bac each and every time when he wa going to dispose of a body and disposed of it in the same are where the other women were >> somebody that lives here? >> we don't know if it's somebody that lives here o somebody that would just com back and frequent albuquerqu on a regular basis

>> whatever the killer's permanent address, those satellite photos were a huge break because they told police when he was active here and, most importantly, when he quit >> there could be somebody u there right now. >> yeah. >> and just depending on where they're at, you wouldn't eve see them up there. >> detective todd babcock an sergeant lou heckroft drew the job of trying to track down th killer all they knew was that he' killed at least 11 women and that the 2005 housing boom tha brought suburban sprawl to the west mesa probably forced hi to abandon this burial groun and find another one where there would be no neighbor around to watch him work >> you're up half a mile to 3/ of a mile from any populated area back in the time frame. >> a time frame, 2003 to early 2005, and 11 sets of bones not a lot to go on but the detectives knew simply finding the bones in the first place had been an incredibly lucky break. >> all the stars aligned yeah >> oddly enough, the west mesa investigators'good fortune began thousands of miles to th east, in the fall of 2008. that's when crumbling financia markets on wall street cause home construction on the wes mesa to grind to a halt.

>> the company kind of lef town and just kind of left the land the way it was. >> if those houses had bee built, they would have bee built right on top of that graveyard. >> correct >> and nobody would be the wiser. >> correct then august 2008 we have -- we had a really bad rainstorm >> and the rain runoff from th deserted construction site flooded the new neighborhood that surrounded it it was when the compan returned to the site to fix th runoff problem that they inadvertently brought some bones to the surface, wher five months later those bone were discovered by christine ross and her dog ruca. >> you look at how many things had to have happened for these victims to be located. the development at first, th housing downturn, after that the fact the company leaves, a

big rainstorm comes, unearth certain things, and now we locate these victims >> so you get lucky. >> yes very lucky >> very lucky. >> by late february 2009 commander paul feist and his small army of crime scen investigators and volunteers weren't feeling very lucky a all. they had literally spent weeks in the trenches looking fo bones at that abandone construction site. >> it is a lot of shovel and pick work. it's a lot of sifting an actually in the dirt >> two women on ida lopez' list had already bee identified among the 11 sets o remains. now between the bulldozers and ida's prayers the department was moving heaven and earth to find out if there were mor women from ida's list ou there. commander feist knew every scrap of evidence recovere from that gigantic crime scene would have to be cataloged and

stored until it came time to prosecute the west mesa grav digger >> the size and the scope of this thing was way beyond think what any of us imagine it would be as it unfolded >> it was a crime scene that covered the equivalent of 75 football fields. and because construction crews had once leveled and filled dry stream bed where some of the body had been buried, th team had to dig deep to find what had once been shallow graves >> we're police officers we're not archaeologists we have a little bit o background in some of thes things but something in this level wa overwhelming >> the learning curve wa steep. early in the excavation on investigator watched as an earth mover dug deep and dumpe a load of dirt only to see a human skull roll down the hill and stop at hi feet it was an eye opener tha taught everyone from seasone criminal investigator to backhoe operator to trea

lightly. >> and from the time that bone came out of the hole just abou every single remaining victi came out intact. >> they were using the bes technology the department coul bring to bear such as lasers and ground-penetrating radar but the work was slow. and the commander would soon feel as if the eyes of the nation were watching every mov he made. >> i'm wondering how many more am i going to find and how man more names am i going to g home with tonight? coming up. >> investigators are looking for connection any signs that the women kne each other >> we had things we wanted t keep secret. things we didn't want released >> and parents who lost a chil find a cause >> we all had a common denominator. our daughters. a lot of people said they were drug addicts and prostitute. but you know what the firs thing is they were human beings to begi with >> when "dateline" continues thanks, tv dad. we'll think about it, okay? look what i found. -a puppy! -a puppy! oh, no, no. i wish tv dad was always in charge. [ dog barks, audience laughter ]

listen to your tv dad. drivers who switch and save with progressive save nearly $700 on average. lowe's knows you never come in for just one thing. drivers who switch and save with progressive so we've got to know a lot of things about a lot of things. like what makes your lawn thrive, paint that adds color in one coat and a dishwasher that handles all the dirty work. you got this. and we got you. that's me before dawn powerwash. [sigh] now, powerwash gives me the power of an overnight soak in minutes. with 3 cleaning boosters... not found in traditional dish soaps that help break down, loosen and lift away food and grease... so much faster! before february 2009 victori

chavez and michelle valdez had been virtually invisible t everyone in albuquerque. except their families. their customers. and detective ida lopez, who'd had their names on her list of missing women. but for the most part th public didn't even know ther was a list the news media had shown littl interest in the story when desperate family members had come to them asking for help >> they wouldn't even put he picture on the news or nothing that's all we really wanted, just to flash her picture real quick. >> of course all that change once bones started turning u on the mesa. >> a few years before the firs body was found a colleague o mine and i had heard about a list of women that wer missing. >> and as it turns out, jolene

gutierrez krueger, a columnist for the "albuquerque journal, had gotten a copy of that list a few years earlier, when sh worked the police beat now that two women from ida' list had been identified jolene had an idea >> i said to one of my editors you know, maybe we ought to ru that list. maybe we ought to, you know, b a little more proactive. and the editor didn't say whole lot. and i thought, well, i'll writ it and we'll see what happens. >> the resulting column, which for the first time publicl connected the missing women on ida's list with the west mes bone field, hit the front page one month after the first bone was found. >> the response was amazing. i think because for the firs time we had started to put faces on these women and we ha explained to the citizens of albuquerque that there weren't just two women that were missing. there were whole bunches o them

>> suddenly families who'd onc felt isolated in their agony now felt a communal bond and at the center of it all wa dan valdez >> and i said, well, let's gather these families together and let's get to know them let's get to be each other's support system let's exchange phone numbers >> an impromptu memorial cam to life alongside the wall tha bordered the desert crim scene. and the newly organize families, which included everyone with a daughter o ida's list, began holdin monthly vigils to keep publi attention focused on finding all of the missing women by now dan was emerging as the videographer and de fact spokesman for the families >> we all had a common denominator. our daughters. some of them chummed aroun with one another it was comforting that i didn't just happen to me >> six weeks after the digging

began out on the west mesa even more sets of remains were identified and sure enough, they too were names on ida lopez's list of missing women. >> investigators are looking for connections. any signs that the women kne each other >> by now the street alongside the desert crime scene was a media encampment, wher reporters were predictably liv at 5:00, 6:00, and 10:00 sometimes reporting detail that crime scene commander pau feist preferred to keep secret >> all of the victims buried out on the west mesa wer buried naked, with no clothing on >> it was a problem. we had things that we wanted t keep very secret, or thing that we didn't want released we had them in the air they had the big telescoping lenses they were there constantly and there were certain processes that it did pose a concern. >> caught between the pressure to keep the public informed an the need to prevent key detail from leaking out to cranks and copycats who routinely clogged tip lines, commander feist found himself scheduling sensitive excavation work in the off hours, when he kne

cameras would not be looking over his shoulder. >> i needed to know where they were all the time. that way, again, so if i wer doing a different process or i i was looking at something specific, i needed to know tha i didn't have the eyes o america in that hole with me >> by mid april, after 2 1/2 months of intensive searching, mapping, and aerial photography, commander feist finally felt confident that his team ha found all the bones there were to find and began shutting dow the west mesa crime scene. >> well, just a few minutes ag albuquerque police left the di site after they say they'd met all of the goals that they set >> the total body count stayed at 11 sets of adult remains an one fetus. but for ida lopez the discover and identification of seve women from her list meant that years of careful detective wor were finally paying off. >> she's very passionate about her job, and she realized that these women all had families they've got parents an grandparents, and some of them actually had children of their own. and she wanted to be able to provide them with some answers >> in addition to victoria chavez and michelle valdez, th others from ida's list wer cinnamon elks, julie nieto

veronica romero, monic candelaria, and doreen marquez >> a lot of people said they were drug addicts an prostitutes. well, if they were, so be it i didn't choose thei lifestyle. but you know what? the first thing is they were human beings to begin with >> commander feist, who trie to keep the local press at arm's length during th excavation, finally allowe them to cross under the yellow tape and onto crime scene, along with crews fro "america's most wanted." >> the tv show "america's most wanted" was also at the crim scene today filming for next weekend's episode on the wes mesa mystery >> gathered for a vigil -- > reporter: media coverage could be helpful now and might generate badly neede tips from the public because not only was there a serial killer to catch but als because one set of remains was about to upset everythin detectives thought they knew about that killer. coming up. >> when they told us that they had a young black girl, thought, i didn't have a black girl on my list. >> who was she where did she come from? how did she get to albuquerque not all of those questions had been answered as of yet.

>> was it possible ida lopez's list was just the tip of the iceberg? >> it's desert there could be ver realistically a lot of bodies. >> this, in a way, suggest maybe there are women out ther who aren't on any list >> that's a possibility. could be others. there could be others. >> when "dateline" continues after months of digging fo bones in the desert west o albuquerque, detective desperately wanted to get on with the work of catching killer so far all the remains identified had been names on ida lopez's list of missin women. and all had worked a prostitutes on the mean street of the city's war zone for police that seemed like good place to start thei search for i'm your overly competitive brother. check. psych! and i'm about to steal this game from you just like i stole kelly carter in high school. you got no game dude, that's a foul! and now you're ready to settle the score. game over.

and if you don't have the right home insurance coverage, well, you could end up paying for all this yourself. so get allstate, and be better protected from mayhem, yeah, like me. thanks, bro. take a lap, rookie. real mature. trying to control my asthma felt anything but normal. ♪ ♪ enough was enough. i talked to an asthma specialist and found out my severe asthma is driven by eosinophils, a type of asthma nucala can help control.

now, fewer asthma attacks and less oral steroids that's my nunormal with nucala. nucala is a once-monthly add-on injection for severe eosinophilic asthma. nucala is not for sudden breathing problems. allergic reactions can occur. get help right away for swelling of face, mouth, tongue, or trouble breathing. infections that can cause shingles have occurred. don't stop steroids unless told by your doctor. tell your doctor if you have a parasitic infection. may cause headache, injection site reactions, back pain, and fatigue. talk to your asthma specialist to see if once-monthly nucala may be right for you. and learn about savings at nucala.com there's more to your life than asthma. find your nunormal with nucala. was able to land safely, and n

injuries were recorded, an retail giant bed, bath, an beyond, filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, after job cuts and store closings, the company added that its roots -- as winds down operations, no back today line. after months of digging fo bones in the desert west o albuquerque, detective desperately wanted to get on with the work of catching killer so far all the remains identified had been names on ida lopez's list of missin women. and all had worked a prostitutes on the mean street of the city's war zone for police that seemed like good place to start thei search for the killer. >> we're looking for peopl who've had histories of showin violence against prostitutes >> and that's more than just a few guys >> it's more than just a few

>> it had to be someone local, investigators assumed. a meticulous man whose gri will had brought him back to the mesa again and again t bury his victims everything was in a pretty contained area all the bones. all the remains. >> yes >> because this guy ha complete freedom or he thought nobody's going to come out here? >> probably because he fel safe out here. >> for detectives like tod babcock it all seemed to add up except for one thing the crime lab had determined that one of the unidentified sets of remains, jane do number 7, was a young blac female >> when they told us that they had a young black girl, thought, i didn't have a young black girl on my list. >> for medical investigato wendy honeyfield the bones o jane doe number 7 and he pink-tipped acrylic nails were a beguiling puzzle >> she's like a lot of other cases that we had skeletal remains that come in and there's so much work that' always done behind the scene to get them identified that nobody really ever sees >> for the detectives who were trying to catch a serial kille those remains represented wild card with staggerin implications what if the west mesa grav digger was a prolific transient? what if jane doe number 7 wa just the first of many victims the grave digger brought to th west mesa from somewhere else?

>> who was she where did she come from? how did she get to albuquerque not all those questions have been answered as of yet. >> it would take more than diligent detective work to fin those answers. but within a few months of receiving those remains th lab-coated sleuths at th office of the medica investigator began unravelin the riddle of jane doe numbe 7. >> since her skull was prett much intact, one of our senior investigators who is able to d forensic sketching started doing a profile for her. >> based on photographs of the skull and a partial hair weave that was recovered from he grave, the sketch artist imagined that jane doe number must have looked something lik this >> he was able to define out her ears that the chin was specific for me her nose and her eyes were ver important. >> jane doe's number 7 nose ha been broken sometime before sh died so that was represented in the sketch and because her wisdom teeth had not fully developed, wendy knew this jane doe was probabl only 14 or 15 years old when she died >> i started looking into th

missing and exploite children's website and was abl to search through as man african-american females tha matched the possible stature where they might have been whe they went missing. >> from a pool of hundreds wendy first narrowed the field to 30, then to 10, and then to 1. one girl whose face, age, an biography seemed to match what she saw in the sketch. her name was syllania edwards. according to the website, she' been a 13-year-old runaway fro a group home in lawton oklahoma in 2003 >> it was her ear. her ear that was exposed in th photo. and it was her eyes. that was what kept me -- kep bringing me back to her. >> dental records from oklahom confirmed that jane doe number 7 was in fact syllania edwards one answer found but that only generated more questions, like when did the oklahoma teenager get to new mexico, and who brought her? >> i don't know. and that's what we're trying t figure out

>> possibly the killer >> don't know. i have no idea how she got here >> so detectives started checking with police departments and jail throughout the southwest on th hunch that syllania, as youn as she was, might have bee entangled in a prostitutio circuit that shuttles wome from city to city. >> what we see very often is the women involved i prostitution work in what' called the circuit so they'll move from albuquerque to phoenix to la vegas to los angeles and maybe not return on that circuit for several years. >> it was in denver, another city on the circuit, tha detective todd babcock hit paydirt. >> at one point syllania had been arrested up in the denver area for prostitution, going b a different name at the time had been booked. they were able to get me a booking photograph of what syllania looked like around th time that she died, we believe >> syllania edwards wa released from that denver-area jail in july 2004, the sam year almost all the other west mesa women had gone missing.

the next time anyone heard anything about syllania, she was here in this makeshift grave site outside albuquerque sharing it with ten other wome she never knew in life but wil be forever linked with i death. >> the biggest thing that make syllania different is she's no a local girl all of her other victims wer local. they had ties to albuquerque >> she was last seen in denver >> last known police positiv contact was in denver. >> suggesting possibly that th killer met her in denver brought her here >> i don't believe so. >> you think she came here o her own? >> it's -- i know she had been to albuquerque at least on prior time to her ending up out here. possibly two prior times >> nine months after the discovery of the first bone on the west mesa the detectives were back to square one. the odds were good tha syllania edwards, like the others, had simply strolled ou into the war zone and climbe

into the wrong car but her presence in the west mesa bone yard raised troubling prospect >> there are other girls fro out of state in the same -- yo know, are we going to find another repeat we don't know. >> now investigators feared th serial killer they were huntin may have buried other bodies elsewhere in the vast desert west of town >> it's desert there could be ver realistically a lot of bodies. >> this in a way suggests that maybe there are women out ther who aren't on any list >> that's a possibility. could be others. there could be others. coming up. >> he was watching a particula prostitute, see a vehicle pick this girl up, drive to ea remo location >> a suspect caught in the fact >> the first word's out of thi girl's moeng mouuth was that h trying to kill her >> when "dateline" continues

>> nine months after the discovery of the first bone on the west mesa the detectives were back to square one. the odds were good tha syllania edwards, like the others, had simply strolled ou into the war zone and climbe into the wrong car but her presence in the west mesa bone yard raised troubling prospect >> there are other girls fro out of state in the same -- yo know, are we going to find another repeat we don't know. >> now investigators feared th serial killer they were huntin may have buried other bodies elsewhere in the vast desert west of town >> it's desert there could be ver realistically a lot of bodies. >> this in a way suggests that maybe there are women out ther who aren't on any list >> that's a possibility. could be others. there could be others. coming up. >> he was watching a particula prostitute, see a vehicle pick this girl up, drive to ea remo location >> a suspect caught in the fact >> the first word's out of thi girl's moeng mouuth was that h

trying to kill her >> when "dateline" continues when the murrays discovered gain scent beads, they fell in love with the irresistible scent. ♪ ♪ huh, huh, so did their dog roger. ♪ ♪ gain scent beads keep even the stinkiest stuff smelling fresh. finally, yasso! a ridiculously creamy, chocolatey chippety ice cream experience with 100 calories because it's made with greek yogurt oooooh, sorry ice cream we know calories are a touchy subject yasso ridiculously better

(wheezing) asthma isn't pretty. it's the moment when you realize that a good day... is about to become a bad one. but then, i remembered that the world is so much bigger than that, with trelegy. because one dose a day helps keep my asthma symptoms under control. and with 3 medicines in 1 inhaler, trelegy helps improve lung function so i can breathe easier for a full 24 hours. trelegy won't replace a rescue inhaler for sudden breathing problems. trelegy contains a medicine that increases risk of hospitalizations and death from asthma problems when used alone. when this medicine is used with an inhaled corticosteroid, like in trelegy, there is not a significant increased risk of these events. do not take trelegy more than prescribed.

trelegy may increase risk of thrush and infections. get emergency care for serious allergic reactions. see your doctor if your asthma does not improve or gets worse. ♪ what a wonderful world. ♪ ask your doctor about once-daily trelegy for asthma - because breathing should be beautiful. from the moment the west mes

murder case landed in thei laps, detectives knew they would be chasing a phantom and grasping at smoke. the killer, whoever he was, an police naturally assumed the killer was male, had a five-year head start >> do you think we're dealin with one guy here? >> yeah, i think there's n doubt that you're dealing with one guy.

>> yeah, because based on ou experience with crimes of this nature, homicide crimes, whe you have multiple offenders, more than one of them, someone's going to talk. >> this killer had seemingly left nothing behind but a pile of dry bones and a few hold hazy satellit images of tire tracks on the desert sand. >> we believe that's him and it's almost frustratin because you look at this picture and you see th disturbed earth which later we learned are grave sites, and you see the tire tracks. but can't get your hands o anything else. >> no witnesses. no fingerprints. no dna >> we went back starting i 2002, and we got the records from our local jail. anybody that was arrested fo prostitution, criminal solicitation, anything lik that and we got a list of names >> but what kind of man is capable of killing is disposin of 11 women without somebody noticing something >> fbi's behavioral sciences agents came in, took a look at our crime scene, took a look a what evidence we had they came up with their profil of who they thought we wer

looking for, including tha profile was a white male >> 35 to 50? >> your typical profile. >> lives alone or is away from home for extended periods of time probably had some brush with law enforcement. probably familiar with the prostitution trade >> yes >> i'm still right down th middle of the fairway on this, right? >> yes >> and that's still a lot of people >> it's a lot of people. and do you use that profile an rule somebody out just because they're not on that profile? >> you can't >> no, you can't >> no. >> the detectives needed a solid tip. and by the summer of 2009 th fbi and the city of albuquerqu were offering $100,000 t anyone who could help them catch and convict the ma responsible for killing th west mesa women. for the detective who'd long maintained that everybod counts, the existence of tha kind of reward was a sign of progress >> you're asked to cal 1-877--- >> though the polic tip line with hundreds of call from a trail mix of nuts, kook and the merely misguided -- >> detective babcock. >> -- no one who seemed to kno something about the five-yea missing persons cases wa dialing the phone. >> there were numerous rumor out there that certain individuals had killed several of them, and then one in

particular had been killed b drug dealers >> were all the victims killed the same way >> we believe so >> can you tell me what that is? >> no. >> homicidal violence. >> you can't say gun, knife, strangulation. you're keeping that quie because you don't want somebod to confess to this who didn' do it. >> that's correct. that's why we're staying wit homicidal violence >> okay. >> homicidal violence. there was no shortage of names on the police list of potentia suspects who were capable of that but one name stood out a name and face detectiv babcock knew quite well from a encounter in 1999, when babcoc was working the vice unit in albuquerque. >> the vice unit was watching particular prostitute. see a vehicle pick this girl up drive to a remote location we approached the vehicle, ope the door, the first words ou of this girl's mouth, who's known prostitute, was that h was trying to kill her >> and the man in the car was? >> lorenzo montoya >> lorenzo montoya, a short, powerfully built man in his 30 who was known to have an equally short temper and a taste for prostitutes. babcock says he saw marks on the woman's throat and that sh told him montoya looked like h was enjoying it. >> did you believe her story >> yes >> so lorenzo was arrested for charges beyond just patronizin a prostitute >> yes, he was >> that felony assault charg against lorenzo montoya went nowhere because the victim later refused to testify but it was what had happened next that really focused the detectives'attention in 2006, years after being caught in the act of choking one prostitute, lorenzo montoy was caught in the company of a dead one

there was no shortage of names on the police list of potentia suspects who were capable of that but one name stood out a name and face detectiv babcock knew quite well from a encounter in 1999, when babcoc was working the vice unit in albuquerque. >> the vice unit was watching particular prostitute. see a vehicle pick this girl up drive to a remote location we approached the vehicle, ope the door, the first words ou of this girl's mouth, who's known prostitute, was that h was trying to kill her >> and the man in the car was? >> lorenzo montoya >> lorenzo montoya, a short, powerfully built man in his 30 who was known to have an equally short temper and a taste for prostitutes. babcock says he saw marks on the woman's throat and that sh told him montoya looked like h was enjoying it. >> did you believe her story >> yes

>> so lorenzo was arrested for charges beyond just patronizin a prostitute >> yes, he was >> that felony assault charg against lorenzo montoya went nowhere because the victim later refused to testify but it was what had happened next that really focused the detectives'attention in 2006, years after being caught in the act of choking one prostitute, lorenzo montoy was caught in the company of a dead one >> on the surface seems like a pretty good suspect. >> yeah. but we don't know if it's hi or not >> according to police, montoy lured the woman to his hom near the west mesa buria ground he killed her, wrapped her bod in a blanket, and was preparin to dump her in the trunk of hi car when the woman's boyfriend showed up. >> we would just love to hav the opportunity to interview him and treat him just like an

of the other individuals we're looking at in this case. >> but that unfortunately will never happen the boyfriend shot and kille lorenzo montoya on the spot. it was a bit of frontier justice for montoya, who was about to literally get awa with murder. but years later his death woul be just as tough a break for detectives investigating the bodies found on the west mesa. >> there's nothing to connec lorenzo montoya to those 1 bodies >> not directly. >> just that he committed that kind of crime. >> it's hard to get over a guy getting shot with a dead prostitute in his arms it is. >> but as tempting as it might be to pin the west mesa murder on a dead man, the detective say there are a few disquietin facts, starting with this one. sapfira mora, one woman on ida lopez's list, had vanished after lorenzo montoya died >> and if you close this cas and decide it was lorenz montoya and then later you fin

out it was somebody else, a lo harder to prosecute that person >> absolutely. >> absolutely. >> as 2009 drew to a close, tw more women from ida's list wer positively identified. virginia cloven and evelyn salazar. there was only one set o nameless remains left to identify but by now it seemed likel that whoever she was her nam was probably already on ida' list the new year began with th detectives knowing they needed a break, and they were prepare to follow any tip anywhere i that's what it took to solve the case >> albuquerque police and fb agents are now in joplin missouri >> then in august 2010 a new flash from missouri that had everyone in albuquerque glue to their tv screens. >> that's a long ways away fro albuquerque, new mexico. coming up -- is the answer t the mystery blowing in the win in >> he's in the area where th prostitutes frequent he's a photographer. so he's going to have clos contact with these people. and now through other source we find something that tells u

a little bit more about thei lifestyle as well, that woul give us that immediate gut reaction, it's got to be, it's got to be that person. >> when "dateline" continues introducing astepro allergy. now available without a prescription. astepro is the first and only 24-hour steroid-free spray. while flonase takes hours, astepro starts working in 30 minutes. so you can [ spray, spray ] astepro and go. is a new title really necessary? sir, after bestowing the gift of renting ease to millions, a bump is in order. okay, let's see. oh, hey... what's this? lord of the lease! i'm not a hat-person. yeah, no. emperor of the rentalverse. that's funny. no.

rentaur the trusted. ...i don't like it. oh. ok. master of the rentalsphere. wow! oh, is it too much? apartments.com the place to find a place. ♪♪ this is how it feels to du more with less asthma... ...thanks to dupixent. dupixent is not for sudden breathing problems. it's an add-on treatment for specific types of moderate-to-severe asthma. and can help improve lung function for better breathing in as little as two weeks. dupixent helps prevent asthma attacks... and can even reduce or eliminate oral steroids. imagine that. ♪♪ dupixent can cause allergic reactions that can be severe. get help right away if you have rash, chest pain, worsening shortness of breath, tingling or numbness in your limbs. tell your doctor about new or worsening joint aches and pain, or a parasitic infection.

don't change or stop asthma medicines, including steroids, without talking to your doctor. who knows what you can do when you du more with less asthma. ask your asthma specialist about dupixent. in late january 2010, nearly a

year after the first bones wer discovered on albuquerque' west mesa, the last set of remains was matched to another name on ida's list

>> university of north texas identified jamie barela throug dna. >> although 15-year-old jami barela was not a prostitute, she was last seen with one, he cousin evelyn salazar, whose remains were also found on the mesa there were still seven missing women who fit the profile on ida lopez's list and if they weren't on the mesa, where were they? with the investigation now focused on finding a seria killer, ida thought back to he late-night chats with the wome of the war zone. had there been anything sh overlooked anything specific about a car? a smell? a tattoo or an accent something that might b significant. >> when you ask them how man bad dates have you had oh, i've had 17. i've been choked i've been beat i've been -- you know, i'v been raped a number of times so you get a lot of that and then i'm thinking, okay, i it somebody that's nice at picking them up? >> investigators had plenty of leads but none that had gotten them closer to answering two

questions -- who was he? and where was he now to find out commander mike geyer, head of the albuquerque p.d.'s criminal investigations unit, says the departmen chased leads all over th country, from texas, where a woman with profile similar t those of the west mesa women have also gone missing to states as far away as pennsylvania and florida, wher the backgrounds and travel patterns of certain types of men seem to warrant clos attention. >> there's probably people tha were in albuquerque during the time frame we're looking at an now through investigative lead or other sources we find something that tells us little bit more about thei lifestyle as well, which would give us again that kind of immediate gut reaction, it's got to be. it's got to be that person >> it was that kind of gut reaction that led detectives t joplin, missouri in august o 2010 >> investigators are extremely tight-lipped at this point, bu we do know that this is in connection to the west mes murders in albuquerque, ne mexico >> the target of the searc

warrant was a local joplin missouri photographer who ha allegedly been in albuquerqu to take pictures during th city's 2004 balloon fiesta but police think it wasn't jus the balloons he wa photographing. remember, 2004 is when almos all of the women found on th west mesa disappeared. >> he's in the area where th prostitutes frequent he's a photographer. so he's going to have clos contact with these people. whatever else draws that connection to him. we have to look into it. >> it was intended to be a low-key search of the man' home and offices but it didn't turn out tha way. >> it gathered a lot o attention because we had t utilize the fbi. we had to utilize the joplin police department. and one of the locations tha was searched was right nex door to a newspaper.

if that same individual wa here in albuquerque, the media wouldn't even have known about him. >> fbi agents also searche this home. >> was the man whose house you served a search warrant on, is he a suspect >> no. i wouldn't say he's a suspect. he's just an individual that came to our attention that w had to follow through. >> so this guy takes photographs of the part of tow that you're sort of looking at is that what we're looking a here, is you're interested i seeing what photos this ma took and whether he foun anything in them >> we really can't say why >> though the detectives spent months combing through all the evidence taken from th photographer's office and home nothing definitive was found and most of these boxes were returned now, more than five years afte the discovery of bones on th west mesa, albuquerque polic

are certain of only one thing. if the serial killer who preye on their city is still alive he's probably moved on t another hunting ground >> my personal opinion, believe that that person i still out there. coming up, a serial killer's trail grows cold >> did you notice when the girls were gone missing? >> he may be waiting in some other community to start doing the same thing again >> and if he is, it may only b a matter of time when "dateline" continues. ♪♪ allergies don't have to be scary. (screaming) defeat allergy headaches fast with new flonase headache and allergy relief! two pills relieve allergy headache pain? and the congestion that causes it! flonase headache and allergy relief. psst! psst! all good! it's been nine years since tha

psoriasis really messes with you. try. hope. fail. no one should suffer like that. i started cosentyx®. five years clear. real people with psoriasis look and feel better with cosentyx. don't use if you're allergic to cosentyx. before starting get checked for tuberculosis. an increased risk of infection, some serious and a lowered ability to fight them may occur. tell your doctor about an infection or symptoms or if you had a vaccine or plan to. tell your doctor if your crohn's disease symptoms develop or worsen. serious allergic reaction may occur. best move i've ever made. ask your dermatologist

summer night when ida lope first took to the streets of albuquerque's war zone alone searching for a couple o missing women. these days, she patrols wa partner, still looking for the lost >> the majority of our girls were street-level prostitutes. >> in that time the case has gone from a nightmare for a fe flawed souls to a nationwide search for a serial killer, an unidentified man who polic believe may not have succeeded in killing every woman h coaxed into his car.

>> he may be waiting in some other community to start doing the same thing again and what we hope to happen i that someone that's had an encounter with this killer wil make that phone call to us and we can link that individual to these crimes that have occurre here in albuquerque. >> if these women had been blond, white, and from the right part of town would you guys have sounded the alar sooner >> what makes this case unique is several of these victim were missing for months before anyone reported them missing also, again, it goes back to the lifestyle. women very often involved in prostitution, it's not uncommo for them to go missing for weeks or months at a time. >> that was true then, and it' true today out in the war zone there's new crop of ragged women on th streets, willing to sell themselves in return for a puf of smoke from a glass pipe >> i want to talk to you >> most of the new girls eithe never knew or barely remembe the women whose places they've taken. >> and whatever you tell us, it's no judgment at all.

okay >> but some do and in spite of their example, they can't quit the life >> did you notice when the girls were going missing >> though police say they have a half dozen suspects on their radar at any given time, so fa they haven't been able t eliminate or arrest any of them >> it's a cold case. so you have to recreate and yo have to kind of go back in the time machine, so to speak, t that era or that time in these people's lives memories fade, and witnesses disappear, and some just don't want to be part of it anymore. >> many who lost friends and relatives to the west mesa grave digger are convinced there could still be someone somewhere who knows something. because, they suppose, all those earlier rumors about the women being abducted, killed and dumped in the desert had t have started somewhere was it all hot air, or did someone with knowledge of th murders mix a kernel of trut into those rumors? >> we're not the only family that got a call saying tha their, you know, sister, daughter was murdered an buried out there >> somebody was trying to send a message at some point.

>> could never trace it back it led them to a dead end. >> though both dan and camille valdez believe michelle' killer is still alive, dan prefers these days to dwell on the things he knows for sure >> i love you, michelle. i miss you, hon. >> that he once had a daughter named michelle who was the light of his life. that once she was lost and tha now she's found. >> and we will see justice served i love you, hon. >> i know 100% that my daughte is not alive i know and i'm comfortable wit the fact that they identifie her as my daughter i am comfortable with the fact that we gave her a prope burial as a human being should be buried. and i'm happy and satisfie with that. >> ida lopez began this case with the mantra that everybody counts it took years. but in the end ida was able to make everybody care. to this day faded photos o women on her list hang on he wall, alongside a line o scripture that reads, "nothing is hidden, except to b revealed." it's a quote familiar to

detectives everywhere. >> and what information do you have >> and it's not just there for inspiration. for ida lopez that's a mission statement. >> i have to keep believin that we'll find an answer soon soon could be months soon could be years. but i just have to kee believing that today could b the day, today could be th day. >> what about those last seven girls? do you think you'll ever fin them >> i think we will >> one of those women, safir mora, was found alive and well a few weeks after this story first aired in december 2010 remember, safira mora had been the one woman who'd gone missing after prime suspec lorenzo montoya had been sho and killed these are the women still on ida's list anna vigil shawntell waites felipa gonzalez. nina herron. vanessa reed and leah peebles >> we're looking and we'll keep looking

i pray i don't have to tel another mom or dad but it's the same background same area. and they're somewhere ou there. >> maybe ida lopez will find those answers here in the same sun-baked desert sand that onc hid this mystery and then late revealed it. but the problem, then as now is time. and this desert doesn't give u its secrets easily remember, safira mora had been the one woman who'd gone missing after prime suspec lorenzo montoya had been sho and killed these are the women still on ida's list anna vigil shawntell waites felipa gonzalez. nina herron. vanessa reed and leah peebles >> we're looking

and we'll keep looking i pray i don't have to tel another mom or dad but it's the same background same area. and they're somewhere ou there. >> maybe ida lopez will find those answers here in the same sun-baked desert sand that onc hid this mystery and then late revealed it. but the problem, then as now is time. and this desert doesn't give u its secrets easily ♪ this sunday, the biden-trump rematch as president biden

prepares to announce his re-election bid this week, o